


Kiss Me Like We're In Love

by Persiflage



Category: Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bernie Wolfe: World's Okay-est Lesbian, F/F, First Kiss, Prompt Fill, Serena Campbell: Bisexual Extraordinaire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29854869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: Canon Divergence: Alternate first kiss scenario.
Relationships: Serena Campbell/Bernie Wolfe
Comments: 17
Kudos: 76





	Kiss Me Like We're In Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rauz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rauz/gifts).



> I found an [OTP Prompt Generator](https://atsuzaki-playground.neocities.org/) and snagged some of the prompts to write. Rauz chose this one for me to write for her.

“Thanks for letting me stay over last night,” Bernie says as she accepts a mug of strong, hot coffee from Serena, trying not to think too much about how adorable she looks with her hair mussed from sleep and wrapped in her thick bathrobe and flannel pyjamas. She, lucky woman, doesn’t have work today so will have plenty of time to recover from last night’s fundraiser. Bernie, on the other hand, has to be in by 8am and would much rather go back upstairs to the amazingly comfortable guest room, for a few more hours of sleep. (If she’s being honest, she’d like to go back upstairs and join Serena in her amazingly comfortable bedroom. But that’s something she can only admit in the privacy of her own head as she’s terrified of messing things up if Serena’s not interested in her. She’s fairly certain, from something Serena let slip about a party in Stepney, that her friend is not the dyed-in-the-wool heterosexual she’d initially assumed her to be, but if she is bisexual there’s still no guarantee that Serena would be interested in Bernie, even if the other woman does flirt with her like it’s an Olympic sport and she’s a gold medal champion.)

“You’re welcome,” Serena says with a warm smile that makes Bernie’s stomach flip.

“You know, you didn’t have to get up to see me off. I could’ve got breakfast at Pulses or something. Not that I’m ungrateful,” she adds hastily. “Your coffee is delicious and you’re totally spoiling me with the bacon butty and pain au chocolat.”

Serena chuckles. “As if I’d let my co-lead go off into the cold March morning without something warm inside her.”

Bernie practically chokes on her coffee, having to put down the mug and hang onto the edge of the table as she fights to get her breath back. Serena’s already leapt up and she hurries around the table to thump Bernie between her shoulder blades, which doesn’t exactly help since her scent – sleep-warmed skin and something that Bernie suspects is the remnants of last night’s perfume since Serena hasn’t showered yet – wafts across Bernie’s face. She turns her head to thank Serena for her assistance and gets an eyeful as her bathrobe and pyjama top are gaping open and she can see the inner curve of Serena’s left breast mere inches away.

“Water,” she croaks out, desperate for Serena to put some distance between them. “Please.”

“Of course.” Serena quickly rubs her palm up and down between Bernie’s shoulder blades, as if in apology for thumping her there when Bernie was choking, then she heads towards the sink and Bernie’s finally able to get her breathing back under a semblance of control.

 _Fuck!_ she thinks savagely. _You’ve got it really bad this time, Wolfe._

She accepts the glass of water from Serena, feeling a tingle of electricity zip through her veins as their fingers brush as the glass is handed over, and Bernie clenches her muscles at the hot throb of desire that spikes between her legs. She does her best to banish the mental image of pushing Serena down on the kitchen table and taking her hard and fast right then and there.

 _Not helping!_ she internally yells at herself. _Get a bloody grip! Where’s your famous ability to compartmentalise gone now, Wolfe?_

She knows where it’s gone, of course: it’s been subsumed by the wave of love and desire that’s crashed over her this morning. She wants Serena as she’s never wanted anyone before, certainly not Marcus and not even Alex. But it isn’t just that she wants to shag Serena to tatters, she’s also feeling an almost overpowering need to protect and take care of Serena, and that’s brand new and almost more terrifying. 

She swallows some water, the cold of it shocking her back to her senses. “Sorry about that,” she says, with an apologetic grimace that’s not really a smile but is trying. “Who knew that you can’t actually literally inhale coffee?”

Serena laughs at that, her head thrown back to expose the column of her neck and Bernie’s mouth goes dry at the sight. She quickly ducks her head, screws her eyes shut and squeezes her thighs together. She grabs her mug of coffee and swallows the last of it.

“Right, I’d better get on. Don’t want to set the others a bad example by rolling up late.”

“At least your dragon of a co-lead won’t be there to berate you if you are tardy,” Serena says with a warm chuckle.

Bernie shakes her head. “Pretty sure you’re not a dragon, Serena,” she says.

She carries her empty mug and plate, and half empty glass of water over to the kitchen counter and leaves them there for Serena to put in the dishwasher once she’s had her own breakfast.

“Thanks again for looking after me, Serena,” Bernie says. “Enjoy your day off and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She heads into the hall and pulls on her long pale grey wool coat and the darker grey scarf that she takes from one of the coat pockets, then she tugs on a matching dark grey beanie; both the scarf and hat are hand knitted and were birthday gifts from her daughter, Charlie, who has finally reconciled with Bernie over the breakup of her parents’ marriage. She grabs her satchel and drops the strap over her head so that it rests against her right hip, then she picks up her holdall.

“Bernie?”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Bernie frowns, then walks into the kitchen, scarcely noticing that Serena’s hands are both on the table, clutching something. “Sorry,” she says, then leans down, one hand on the back of Serena’s chair, and kisses her.

When she straightens up, the other woman has flushed red. “Thanks,” she says, a little faintly. “But I meant this.” She lifts her hands to reveal Bernie’s mobile phone, wallet, and car keys on the table.

It’s then that the realisation hits Bernie: she’s just kissed Serena. She kissed Serena Campbell in the most casual way imaginable and they aren’t even a couple.

“Shit!” Bernie exclaims. “Sorry!” She grabs her stuff and flees, ignoring Serena calling her name as she flies along the hallway, through the front door, then down the drive before she dives into her car, drops her bags on the passenger seat, and reverses out onto the main road. She forces herself to pay attention to the speed limit and not drive like a bat of hell all the way back to her own home. Her phone rings twice, but she ignores it both times since she can see it’s Serena calling her, then the text message alert chimes twice, but she ignores that, too, at least until she gets to work. Then she parks and sits in the car, listening fearfully to the voicemails that Serena has left for her.

 _Berenice Griselda Wolfe answer the damn phone!_ There’s a sigh. _You’re a fool, but so am I. I’m not mad at you for kissing me. Please, ring me, preferably before you go into the office._

Bernie sighs, wondering if she dares to hope, then decides that she doesn’t: just because Serena’s not mad at her, doesn’t mean she reciprocates. She listens to the second message.

_Bernie Wolfe, don’t you dare start work without talking to me first! If you do, I’ll come down there at lunchtime and talk to you in person. I want to talk to you in person, anyway, but at least ring me first. Please._

She heaves another sigh, then checks her text messages and discovers they’re on similar lines to the voicemail messages. She checks the time and sees she has a good fifteen minutes to spare before she has to be on AAU so, with a sense of girding her loins, she hits the speed dial for Serena. It’s answered immediately.

“Thank you for ringing me back,” Serena says, her voice soft and warm in Bernie’s ear.

“Serena, I –”

“Bernie. Let me speak first, please?”

“Okay.”

“Thank you. I meant what I said. I’m not mad at you for kissing me. And I’ve been a fool, but then so have you. Why didn’t you tell me that you wanted to be more than friends with me?”

“Because I didn’t know if you did,” Bernie says immediately. “And I was scared that it’d mess up our friendship if I told you and you didn’t feel the same way. If I’d told you that I more than like you and you didn’t reciprocate, then it would have messed up our working relationship and our friendship, and they’re both too precious to me to lose.”

Serena sighs softly. “Oh love, I’ve been feeling the same way for months. I hoped you might more than like me, too, but when I dropped a hint, you didn’t react at all, so I assumed that meant you weren’t interested.”

“You dropped a hint?” Bernie asks, frowning. “When?”

“When I told you about kissing a girl, well, a woman at a party in Stepney. You didn’t react at all.”

Bernie blushes despite the fact that Serena can’t see her. “Oh,” she says softly. “I didn’t realise that was why you were telling me.”

“Silly goose,” says Serena with a fondness that’s palpable, even over the phone. “I hoped that if I told you that I like women as well as men, you’d do something to show you were as interested in me as I am in you. But you didn’t, so I just assumed you don’t find me desirable.”

“Don’t find you desirable?” Bernie splutters. “Love, you’re bloody gorgeous. Not to mention smart, capable, and as committed to our job as I am. That’s a whole raft of reasons why I find you extremely desirable.” She looks around, but there’s nobody in sight, so she clears her throat, then says, “When you gave me that glass of cold water earlier I actually considered pushing you down on the table and having you right there and then.”

“Did you?” Serena says, sounding incredibly interested. “I think, Major, that you’d better stay over at mine again tonight and we can talk.”

“What about Jason?” Bernie asks. “I don’t want us to get between you and him.”

“That’s sweet of you, love, but he’s still with Allan. They’ve gone to that Expo, whatever one of those is, and he won’t be back home until Sunday evening.”

“Then I’ll come over this evening,” Bernie says. “I’d better go, the time’s getting on. See you later.”

“I shall be thinking of you all day, Major,” Serena says and Bernie gasps at the lascivious tone of voice.

“I’ll try not to think of you,” she answers. “Or I won’t be able to concentrate.”

Serena laughs uproariously at that and Bernie feels her heart clench in response. Then she ends the call and climbs out of her car. She circles around it and takes out her satchel and the overnight bag from the passenger seat. The latter she drops into the boot while she takes the satchel with her. She’ll head home after work to pick up some clean clothes for tomorrow and stop off on the way to Serena’s to pick up a couple of things she thinks that Serena will appreciate.

She suppresses a shiver of anticipation and firmly resolves not to think about tonight.


End file.
